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Why Costco Should Clean Up Its Citi Credit Card

This is a re-publication of a blog from Third Act. Read the original blog here.

Costco is in a pickle (and we’re not talking about free samples): they’re partnered with Citibank, one of the world’s dirtiest banks. Since 2016, Citi has funneled a staggering $332 billion into new fossil fuel investments. As the third largest retailer in the US, Costco, along with its vast membership base, is a massive client of Citi.

That’s where you come in. Sign this petition to tell Costco to drop Citi as its credit card issuer if Citi doesn’t clean up its act.

Climate-driven catastrophes are wreaking havoc worldwide with devastating consequences for communities. Even Costco’s own stores have had to evacuate due to wildfires and severe flooding. From dangerous heat waves to destructive hurricanes, climate extremes are worsening.

We all deserve a future worth living, free from climate chaos and the pollution caused by dirty fossil fuels. The giant oil, coal, and gas corporations––bankrolled by institutions like Citi––are obstructing our transition to clean, renewable energy. Big box retailers like Costco are uniquely positioned to hold the banks to account.

Costco is a beloved brand. It strives to keep prices low and recently adopted na decent climate policy. Its motto is simple but powerful, “do the right thing.”

Since our founding, Costco has operated under the guiding principle of doing the right thing – for our members, our employees, our suppliers, our communities, and the environment. We understand that when we do the right thing, good things happen.

We want Costco to do the right thing here and demand change from Citi. That’s why we’re launching the Costco: Clean Up Your Credit Card campaign, spearheaded by Third Act, Stop the Money Pipeline, Stand.earth, Climate Organizing Hub, New York Communities for Change, and other dedicated partners.

 

The Climate Problem with Costco’s Banking & Credit Card

We’ve got the receipts on Citi: Citi is the second biggest funder in the world of dirty fossil fuels, providing more than $330 billion in financing to fossil fuel companies and projects since 2016, and is the largest US funder of coal. This funding is making it possible for big oil, gas, and coal companies to keep expanding dirty, polluting projects that are contributing to relentless climate disasters. The Wall Street banks are growing even bigger from corporate cash, retail customers, and credit card profits. From credit card partners to the cash it keeps in the banks, large retailers like Costco need to take the climate impacts of its financial relationships into account and compel its banking partners to stop undermining its own climate progress..

To demonstrate the need for Costco to take into account the climate impacts of its banking, Third Act and Stop the Money Pipeline commissioned analysis of Costco’s “financial carbon footprint” by TOPO, a “think and do” tank known for its work on The Carbon Bankroll report in 2022, which revealed the hidden and substantial climate impacts of corporate finance. TOPO’s analysis estimated that the pollution stemming from Costco’s cash in the banks it uses is more than one-third of Costco’s greenhouse gas pollution from its own operations. TOPO’s analysis is based on an average across US banks and is not Citi-specific, since Costco does not disclose publicly which banks it uses, separate from its credit card partnership.

If Costco considered the emissions generated by its banking as part of its operational carbon footprint, these estimated “cash emissions”—a total of 1.53 million metric tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide—are its biggest single source of carbon pollution, even more than the emissions from all the energy used in Costco’s warehouse stores for lights, heating, refrigeration, and deliveries. This amount is equivalent to more than 340,500 gasoline-powered vehicles driven for one year, or 1.7 billion pounds of coal burned, or 3.8 gas-fired power plants operating for one year (using EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Calculator). That’s a lot of pollution!

 

The Solution: Costco, Push Citi on Climate or Else Drop Citi

Costco is one of Citi’s largest credit card clients. Citi makes a lot of money from its relationship with Costco, and you know what banks care about? Money. That’s why Costco has the power to persuade Citi to stop financing fossil fuel expansion or else to switch to a better credit card bank partner that isn’t wrecking the planet. By pushing Citi on climate or ending its credit card relationship with Citi, Costco can step up, keep its own climate promises, and compel Citi to stop funding fossil fuels.

In keeping with Costco’s existing climate policy and commitments, Costco should include the financed emissions associated with the banks it uses in its own annual reporting on its carbon footprint, just as it will report on the emissions associated with the suppliers of the products it sells. This will reflect Costco’s true carbon footprint. Lastly, Costco should include climate-friendly criteria in its requirements for how it selects its bank service providers, including credit cards.

Costco has the opportunity to be a leader among large retailers by addressing the climate impacts of its banking relationships. There are other credit card company options, and reporting a company’s complete carbon footprint will soon be required by a new law passed in California.

 

What You Can Do

We know that Costco cares about its reputation. Costco listens to its members, and Citi listens to Costco.

You can join us by signing this petition urging Costco to drop Citi as its credit card issuer if Citi doesn’t stop financing fossil fuels.

While Costco members have a special voice, anyone concerned about climate can sign the petition. To win this campaign, we will need lots and lots of people to sign. So, let’s make sure Costco hears from members and non-members alike!

There are other ways you can help too, as described in the FAQs below. Many of us like shopping at Costco—free samples, infamous cakes, bulk buys, $1.50 hot dogs—and we’d like it even more if Costco shopped for a better, cleaner, climate-friendly credit card.

Read the blog on Third Act’s website.

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CBS News: Climate change protesters block entrance to Citigroup headquarters in Lower Manhattan; 2 dozen arrested

On September 14, 2023, climate protestors blocked access to Citigroup’s headquarters over the bank’s funding of fossil fuels. At least 24 activists were arrested as Citi workers and customers lined up around the building, unable to get inside due to the blockade.

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Chaos at Citibank, as Global Headquarters Shut Down for Over an Hour, 24 Arrested

NEW YORK — On Thursday, September 14th, protesters shut down Citibank’s global headquarters, as over 1000 Citi employees were prevented from entering the building for over an hour. Protesters were met by aggression by some Citibank employees, as bankers unable to enter the building packed the surrounding blocks. 25 people were arrested.

This marks a major escalation at Citibank, which protesters have targeted over the past year with rallies, an overnight occupation, and public pressure from Mets fans and elected officials for the team to drop Citi as their stadium sponsor.

On Wednesday, September 13th, climate activists blocked traffic on 10th avenue across from BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world and top fossil fuel investor. Five people were arrested.

The past two days culminated in a total of 30 arrests at both institutions, highlighting the growing momentum and urgency of the climate movement.

Protestors are calling on BlackRock and Citibank to pull funds from fossil fuel investments and decarbonize their portfolios. New York Communities for Change, one of the organizations leading these protests, has been targeting both banks for months, drawing attention to the corporations’ outsized involvement in exacerbating the climate catastrophe.

As we choke on wildfire smoke and sweat through September heatwaves, Citibank and BlackRock rake in profits. Ashe world’s biggest financiers of fossil fuels, Citi and BlackRock wield enormous power over the future of our planet. We have exhausted almost every avenue to persuade these billion-dollar companies to  divest from fossil fuels. Time is running out. We refuse to stand by as Citi and BlackRock continue to make billions off of the destruction of our environment and communities,” said Alicé Nascimento, Director of Policy at New York Communities for Change. 

“The Paris Agreement was supposed to be a pivotal moment in the fight against climate change. But seven years later, we’re hurling more carbon into the atmosphere than ever and still building new oil, gas and coal infrastructure that will lock emissions in for decades. One major reason for this is Citibank. Since 2015, Citi has provided $332 billion to the fossil fuel companies that are undermining the fight against the climate crisis and attacking climate action at every turn. $332 billion is more than the total market share value of Chevron. If Citibank stops funding fossil fuels and starts pouring money into renewables, the impacts will be colossal,” said Alec Connon, Stop the Money Pipeline’s coalition co-director.

“Today is Citibank’s time of reckoning. Citi financed methane plants have made the air unbreathable in my community. They have polluted our land and water, and made utilities so expensive that our families have to choose between food and electricity. Citibank executives think they can hide in their plush offices and high rise buildings, but we’ll be meeting them at their doorstep at any chance we can get. They’ve caused irreparable damage to the ecosystem of the Gulf Coast and we’re here to hold them accountable. It’s time for Citi to stop financing fossil fuels so we all can live,” said Justin Fitch from Healthy Gulf. 

Indigenous leaders criticized BlackRock’s role as one of the largest shareholders in the international mining company Rio Tinto, notorious for human rights and environmental abuses.

BlackRock needs to move off fossil fuels, and as they do, they need to invest in real solutions: that means respecting water and Treaty rights, and not toxic mining projects –that’s Green Colonialism, not a just transition,” said Gina Peltier, an organizer with Honor the Earth.

Charlotte Loonsfoot, from Baraga, Michigan, a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Ojibwe who was part of a community struggle against Rio Tino’s Eagle Mine, said, Rio Tinto lied and manipulated and bullied our townspeople, and paid a lot of businesses off. Companies like BlackRock who are financing Rio Tinto need to back out now.

These protests were part of a larger global movement holding financial institutions accountable for their investments in fossil fuels and expediting the climate crisis. Similar actions are taking place across NYC ahead of the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17th, emphasizing the growing momentum of climate activism.

Press Contact: Jane Chung, [email protected], 201-686-5901

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The banks fuelling the climate crisis in the Global South

Find out more about ActionAid’s groundbreaking new research into the financial flows fuelling industrial agriculture and fossil fuels – the two industries that are the largest contributors to climate change. These finance flows enable these harmful industries to expand and thrive. Meanwhile, the solutions needed to address the climate crisis remain woefully underfunded.

I’ve seen first hand the devastation extreme weather can inflict on the lives of people who did very little to cause it, and this injustice is what spurs me on as a climate activist. What angers me the most is the lack of action that world leaders and huge polluters are taking to halt this crisis.

Money continues to be pumped into harmful activities that threaten the existence of our planet and its people. This report reveals the trillions in harmful finance flowing to the Global South, fuelling the climate crisis and directly harming vulnerable communities. Above all, and crucially, it celebrates the climate heroines and heroes, the farmers and communities leading the way with agroecology and rooted resistance.

Vanessa Nakate, Activist, writes in the foreword of our new report

This flagship report of our campaign, Fund our Future, looks at the role played by major international banks in financing fossil fuels and industrial agriculture in the Global South. It also examines the current role of public financing in supporting fossil fuels and industrial agriculture, and how public finance could instead support a transition towards a more sustainable future based on renewable energy and agroecology.

  • In Part 1, we set out the context of the climate crisis to explain why system change is needed. We examine the climate impacts of fossil fuels and industrial agriculture, as well as their broader effects on the environment, gender equity and social justice.
  • Part 2 looks at financial flows to industrial agriculture and fossil fuels that are harming the planet, and evidence that finance flows for fossil fuels are still far greater than those for climate adaptation and mitigation. Private financial flows can take various forms – including bond and shareholdings by asset managers, pension funds and insurance companies. For the purposes of this report, however, we focus on bank financing, in the form of loans and underwriting. We find that bank financing for the fossil fuel industry in the 134 countries of the Global South reached an estimated US$3.2 trillion dollars since 2016 when the Paris Agreement on Climate Change was adopted. Bank financing to the largest industrial agriculture companies operating in the Global South amounted to US$370 billion over the same period.
  • Part 3 of the report examines how public finds are currently harming the public interest. We survey the financing offered to industrial agriculture and fossil fuels by state-owned banks and enterprises, development finance, public investment funds, and public subsidies.
  • Real and sustainable solutions to address global energy and food requirements already exist, which we examine in Part 4.
  • In the final section of this report, Part 5, we set out recommendations for banks and governments to support a just transition from funding the world’s destruction, to financing its hope for survival.

Read the report, share with your networks and join ActionAid on our journey to end the funding of our world’s destruction, and instead, #FundOurFuture.

Read full report on Action Aid’s website

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Financial Times: UN warns banks that fund Saudi Aramco about possible human rights breach

The Financial Times wrote about the UN’s warning to major banks including Citi that their financing of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest corporate emitter, may be in violation of human rights standards due to the oil giant’s role in driving catastrophic climate change.

Read the full article on the Financial Times’s website.

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Bloomberg: JPMorgan, Citi Listed as Top Oil and Gas Banks in the Amazon

An article from Bloomberg covers Stand.earth’s research revealing Citi as one of the largest global financial backers of oil and gas extraction that has devastated the Amazon rainforest over the past 15 years.

 

The Amazon rainforest is nearing catastrophic climate and deforestation tipping points, and banks like Citi have a critical role to stop funding this destruction.

Read full article in Bloomberg’s website.

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Tell Citi Board Chair to Stop Fueling the Climate Crisis

Sponsored by: Stand.earth

Recent extreme weather is not coincidental. They are symptoms of an escalating climate crisis that has been building for decades.

A major catalyst for this crisis is the funding of the fossil fuel industry by big banks. Banks invest billions of dollars into coal, oil, and gas corporations that create dirty energy, instead of doubling down on the renewables we need.

Citi and its board chair, John Dugan, are major climate offenders. Under Dugan, Citi has provided funding to companies like Exxon, Shell, Chevron, and Enbridge, who are building polluting new pipelines, oil rigs, and power plants, despite frontline resistance. These unethical investments make Citi the second largest funder of fossil fuels in the world.

Citi’s support for new fossil fuel projects jeopardizes our communities’ health, human rights, and future generations. As we experience the very real effects of the climate crisis, the cost of inaction is too high.

Together, let’s demand Citi and Dugan divest from fossil fuels for the sake of our communities — and our planet.

Send your message directly to Citi executives

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